Counties Raise The Number Of Fatal Heroin Overdoses To 41 After Reviewing Autopsy Files.

October 18, 1996|By Henry Pierson Curtis of The Sentinel Staff

A man who sold the heroin that killed two Colonial High School students in May pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to contributing to their deaths.

It was the first conviction of a drug dealer involved in Orlando's epidemic of fatal heroin overdoses.

Meanwhile, the number of local deaths attributed to heroin climbed dramatically this week after the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner's Office reviewed autopsy files and found more than a dozen had been listed under other causes of death.

As a result, 41 deaths - including those of six teens - now are blamed on heroin since January 1995 in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.

For his role in the deaths of two teens and an Orlando steelworker, Thomas Mastin Jr., 20, faces up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Jan. 15.

Mastin did not face murder charges because he was tried under federal charges that only held him accountable for providing drugs that resulted in death.

Two of the dead were Mike Apple and Ben Barrow, both 18 and students from Colonial High, whereMastin attended until the 10th grade.

Mastin's guilty plea trimmed about five years from his prison sentence. If he had been convicted at trial, he would have faced 20 to 25 years.

''Drug dealers only care about money and I don't know if these consequences will scare anyone,'' said Apple's mother, Debra Gillham. ''He had no respect for anyone's life.

''He kept doing what he was doing after my son died.''

Apple was a straight-A student and voted best-looking by his classmates. He planned to be a dentist and had been offered three college scholarships. Barrow worked at a restaurant.

It is only in the past two years that heroin dealing has surfaced as a major problem in Central Florida.

Orange and Osceola counties have had 36 deaths. Seminole has had five. At least four additional suspected heroin-related deaths are awaiting autopsy results in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.

Mastin's arrest on July 18 came after a two-month investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

He had called 911 on May 15 to report the deaths of Apple and Barrow, who died in an apartment near Valencia Community College in east Orlando.

Mastin became a major suspect when he was arrested later the same day with Rohypnol, a powerful sedative, after a car accident.

Weeks later, drug agents secretly recorded Mastin telling an informant that he had sold heroin and cocaine to the teens and was with them before they died.

Mastin ''elaborated words to the effect that he thought the 'bitches' were dead when he took them from his car to the apartment,'' DEA Agent A.G. Toth wrote in an arrest affidavit.

Other prosecutions may soon follow.

''We have several cases where heroin is suspected and we're actively working these cases (with the narcotics unit),'' Orange County homicide Sgt. Mike Easton said Thursday. ''Hopefully, we'll be able to identify these dealers and charge them.''

An Orlando police case involves the June death of Jonathan Goodwin, 16, who died from heroin and Rohypnol.

Goodwin's mother, Toni, accused Orlando police of bungling the investigation when she testified Monday at a congressional field hearing on Central Florida drug abuse. The case remains under investigation, police said.

If none of Mastin's clients had died, his heroin dealing likely would have carried only a 27-month sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Byron said.

State law allows someone who provides a fatal overdose of heroin or cocaine to be charged with first-degree murder, but the level of proof required is higher.